Canberra Grammar School congratulates the 2014 Year 12 leavers on their International Baccalaureate (IB) and Higher School Certificate (HSC) results.*
We are delighted that the students in the School’s first ever IB cohort achieved some impressive results. 32 students (20% of the year) undertook the IB from across the full academic spectrum of Year 12. Their median ATAR was 89.95, which reflects a very strong group performance, particularly for such a large and diverse pioneer group in a non-selective program.
We particularly congratulate IB student David Tian, who achieved an outstanding IB score of 44 out of a maximum possible 45 and an ATAR of 99.85, making him Dux of the School for 2014.
Other IB students with especially strong results include Srikar Jha who attained Grade 6 or 7 for all of his subjects, Stephen Carroll and Nic McGinness who attained Grade 6 or 7 in all but one of their subjects. Results were notably strong in Latin, Physics, Chemistry, Geography, and Sports Science, while, impressively, all students taking Chinese attained Grade 7 or Grade 6 with an extraordinary four students gaining Grade 7s.
Similarly, in the HSC, there were a number of outstanding individual and group successes, with performances in many subjects substantially above the combined Band 5 and 6 percentages for the entire state cohort. Our students gained 96 places on the HSC Honour Roll for top Band results, with 35% of all HSC students earning a place on the Distinguished Achievers’ List for attaining 90% or more in at least one of their subjects. 54% of all results were in the top two bands, an excellent performance for a non-selective boys’ school.
Once again, results in Software Design and Development were outstanding with 39% of our boys attaining Band 6 results relative to 7% across the state. Likewise, Science results were strong with 25% of Canberra Grammar School candidates in Chemistry attaining Band 6 relative to 12% across the state, and 11% of Biology students in Band 6 compared with 6% of the state. Modern and Ancient History results were once again well above the state percentages in Bands 5 and 6. Additionally, Canberra Grammar students achieved results above the state-wide Band 6 benchmarks for Physics, Business Studies, German Continuers and General Mathematics 2.
Two students achieved places on the All-round Achievers List as they achieved results of 90% or more in at least 10 units. Congratulations to Brendan Fulton and Benjamin Goodnow.
A further four students were recognised for outstanding performance in particular courses:
- Joshua Fridgant for 1st place in Chemistry, from a field of over 11,000 students
- Alastair Barnett for 6th place in Software Design and Development
- Lochie Ferrier for 7th place in Software Design and Development, and
- Brendan Falk for 5th place in French Continuers. Brendan is the School Captain for 2015 and completed his HSC French Continuers studies during Year 11.
The School is also proud of the fact that 98% of all Year 12 students at the School will graduate with an ATAR, with the vast majority achieving ATARs above 65, more than at any other ACT school. We congratulate all of the boys and their teachers for their hard work and effort in both the IB and the HSC, and we thank the boys for their excellent leadership of the School.
* Please note that unlike other ACT schools, Canberra Grammar School offers the NSW Higher School Certificate, which is a challenging and academically rigorous qualification that tests a total cohort of over 70,000 students through a combination of school-based assessments and demanding public examinations. The NSW Board of Studies does not release ATARs to schools, so the School is not able to provide ATAR statistics for the Higher School Certificate. The School also offers the International Baccalaureate as an alternative to the HSC; the IB is an internationally recognised and academically rigorous qualification, taken by more than 140,000 students each year in schools all over the world through a combination of school-based and external examinations and assessments. Students may attain a maximum overall point score of 45, with their points converting to an ATAR according to scales published annually by the state university admissions services.
The introduction of the International Baccalaureate means that HSC results from 2014 onwards cannot be compared with previous HSC results. It also means that HSC league table positions published in newspapers are meaningless as they do not include results for IB students who make up a significant proportion of the cohort.
